


Boys And Girls In School

by sixer (trilogycal)



Category: Codename: Kids Next Door
Genre: A 7K WORD ONE-OFF HOLY SHIT I DIDN'T EVEN REALIZE, Australian Slang, Background Relationships, F/M, Future Fic, High School, Implied Relationships, Implied/Referenced Disabilities, Implied/Referenced Mental Illnesses, Jealousy, Magic The Gathering - Freeform, Multi, Post-Canon, SORRY FOR THE M:TG TERMINOLOGY LOL, Shoutouts & references up the wazoo, Stereotypes, Teen Romance, and also an extremely brief nod to menstrual cycles, and also another extremely brief nod to teenage sex, and extremely background 1/362, i missed a real good opportunity to have the rival be Ace The Kid. man.........., implied mutual 2/5, in the sense that. yeah. they're in high school. it happens, it'll probably just be a one-off
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-17
Updated: 2018-07-17
Packaged: 2019-06-11 20:56:30
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 7,795
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15324144
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/trilogycal/pseuds/sixer
Summary: "Questions for questions,I've got a question:Would you ever dance with me like that?"Wally, and the struggle with Kuki's new boyfriend.(alternatively titled: Hoagie & Abby Have Never Suffered This Much In Their Entire Lives)





	Boys And Girls In School

**Author's Note:**

> what year is it? 2006?? This Is Cringy I Know And For That I'm Sorry
> 
> but i may have been watching illegal knd on youtube, and. well. you know the rest
> 
> but despite it all, i hope that this isn't too bad (if anyone is reading right now.....i love you). i wrote all of the sections out of order, then went back and tried to segway them all into a reasonable sequence. there still might be some bits of scenes left in from draft #1, but hopefully not too many. 
> 
> oh, and here's a dictionary of australian slang (http://alldownunder.com/index.html). sorry -- you'll probably need it. i may have gone a little overboard with the dialect/accent thing i did with wally's (and maybe a little bit of abby's) dialogue. i always aim to have my characters speak naturally, which is filled with pauses and words that run together. if it's hard to read, then i sincerely apologize, and i'll work on not being so extra in my next work :)
> 
> the inspo song meant that this was going to be a completely different take; probably something involving prom or whatever. i can't even remember now, it's been a week. it turned into this last minute, so this is what it is now.
> 
> strap in, readers! i didn't even realize it was 7k until i posted it so get your popcorn & buckle up, bc it's a long ride that i hope you'll enjoy regardless

The one day Kuki was late to lunch, Wally knew something was off. 

"Aye," he said, nudging Hoagie with his elbow. "Where's, ah... where's Kooks?" 

"Kuki?" Hoagie asked, looking up from his fan of Magic: The Gathering cards. He had a pretty bad hand, with more than half of his spread comprising of creatures, but no mana to play them with. Quite a bad situation to be in. "I dunno, man. Hey Abby, you know where she is?" 

"Nah," their African American friend said simply. She placed a green card down, then laid a creature -- a card with two humans on it. "I summon Pia and Kiran Nalaar," she continued smugly, watching Hoagie grit his teeth with triumph. "Despite their summoning sickness, when they enter the battlefield, they create two one-one colorless Thopter artifact creature tokens with flying. So Abby will just--" She reached off to the side, and selected two cards, then two pennies that substituted as tokens. (Hoagie's pack had inexplicably been missing them when he'd bought them. So now they used pennies.) "--grab two'a those, and then..."

"Really?" Hoagie groaned, shoulders slumping under her move. "Good one, Abby. Okay, I summon--" 

"Abby's turn ain't finished, fool!" Abigail interrupted, a gleeful grin played across her lips. 

Hoagie's gulp was audible. "Please. Have mercy."

Wally scowled at his ignored inquiry. He twisted around, putting his arm across the top of the plastic chair he sat in, scanning his eyes over the crowd of students gathered in the cafeteria. His concern grew; Kuki was always on time for everything, especially for their meet-ups. Lunch was one of the few times in school they all had together. (Poor Nigel was sentenced to first lunch; luckily, he had Rachel McKenzie to keep him company. Unluckily, with her came her ferocious friend, Fanny Fulbright.) She would never skip out unless she never came to school in the first place. 

Suddenly, he spotted the back of a familiar head. His heart shot up into his throat as he watched Kuki emerge from the lunch line, a tray in hand. "Hey, Kooks!" he called, raising his arm to wave her over. "We're over here!" 

Kuki didn't even glance over at him, seemingly deaf to his voice over the din of people chattering. Wally scrunched his nose up, and opened his mouth to try again. 

He froze as he watched her face light up, and she rushed over to the right. Wally closed his mouth and followed her, eyes widening as he watched her greet a... 

...a.. boy.

Wally jutted his elbow out again, hard, this time poking Hoagie in the ribs. 

"Hey, ow!" The other boy fumbled to switch his cards into one hand, covering his newly injured side with the other. "Dude, watch it, your elbows are the gosh-darn pointiest I've ever--" 

"I found Kuki," Wally interrupted. "She's..." 

Hoagie glanced over at Abigail. "She's what?" he pressed. 

Wally untwisted his torso, facing forward again and slumping down in his chair. "Sitting with some kid," he growled, oblivious to the angry grumble of his own voice. He jerked a thumb over his shoulder. "Ova' that way." 

Abigail and Hoagie exchanged another look, and simultaneously placed their cards face-down. It was weird, how they moved in perfect tandem sometimes. Abigail merely turned her head, squinting fiercely as she scanned the crowd. Hoagie, on the other hand, lifted out of his seat, jokingly putting a hand over his eyes as he looked. "Oh, I see her," he said, pointing their friend out to Abigail. "There, sitting next to Danny Kiyoko." 

"That kid from algebra?" Abby questioned. 

"Yeah," Hoagie confirmed. "The other smartest kid in that class, besides her." 

"Si'ddown, idiot," Wally hissed, yanking his friend down by the arm. "Why are ya bein' so obvious wit' it?" 

Hoagie scowled, rubbing his arm where he'd been grabbed. "Why are _you_ being so obvious?" he fired back. "She's just sitting with some other dude, not getting married to him. No need to get so jealous." 

"I ain't jealous!" Wally protested. "I'm just wonderin' why she's sittin' with some rando, instead of her group of best friends, is all!" 

Hoagie rolled his eyes. "Sure, man." 

Abigail intervened, "Alright, break it up," when she noticed Wally's jaw tighten. "Chill out, both'a yous. Gilligan, don't instigate." 

Hoagie sighed. "Sorry, Abby." He threw Wally a sidelong smirk, folding his hands beneath his chin in mock-adoration. "He's just so cute when he's all riled up!" 

"Cute?!" Wally seethed, banging both fists on the table. 

"Man, shut up," Abby grumbled, leg twitching beneath the table; judging by the way he winced, Hoagie's shin had been kicked accordingly. 

"My bad, my bad." Hoagie turned to Wally. "Sorry, dude. You're not cute when you're angry, you're.. kinda scary. And not, like, hot scary, like Abby is, but 'I don't want to get punched by someone who's gotten more detentions for fighting in one year than anyone else in the grade level' scary." He pointedly ignored the bewildered look Abby gave him and fluttered his eyelashes at Wally instead. 

Wally's scowling mouth lightened into merely a frown. "Whateva', mate," he muttered, propping his chin up in his hands. "I'm jus' wonderin' why she.. ditched us." 

"Wally, she's prolly talking about homework with the boy," Abby told him. "They've got books on the table an' everything." 

Wally twisted back around, watching Kuki giggle hard enough to snort at whatever Danny Kiyoko said, eagerly leaning forward to hear him over the chatter surrounding them. She never even looked their direction. 

"Maybe," he said softly, guts twisting darkly as she smiled at the other guy so sweetly. "Maybe it's jus' homework." 

"I hope it is, for your sake," Hoagie muttered as his friend drifted off into an oblivious state of thinking. He reached for his cards once again. "Now, Ms. Abigail. I believe it's time to return to our d-d-d-duel. I still have ten minutes left to turn it all around!" 

Abigail frowned at their Australian friend and reluctantly picked up her cards again. "If you think you can pull a turnabout on me in ten minutes then you've anotha' thing comin', fool." 

/ 

It wasn't just homework. 

He _knew_ it wouldn't just be homework.

Wally noticed them everywhere together. Kuki and Danny Kiyoko: walking to classes together, sitting at lunch with him almost every day, helping him with homework even though he didn't even need it, laughing so hard that she snorted at all of Danny's jokes instead of his--

Slamming his locker shut, bad mood rising, Wally bent down to snatch his backpack off of the floor. Slinging it over his shoulder, he turned to make his way to Friday's soccer practice. The sight of two people standing at the other end of the row of lockers made him freeze, foot still raised mid-step. 

Kuki and Danny Kiyoko... 

...standing _way_ too close, at his locker. 

The Asian girl was looking up at him, the sweetest sort of smile on her face. "I'll text you later," she was saying. "I finished my work in class, so once I get home and help Mom with laundry, I should be free for a couple of hours until it's time for dinner." 

"I'll be looking forward to it," Danny Kiyoko replied. "Maybe once I finish my chem work, we can meet up somewhere." 

"That'd be awesome!" Kuki agreed. She moved forward, arms coming up to envelop him in a warm embrace. It held for a few seconds -- to Wally, time had stopped, so it could've been hours -- and when they pulled apart, she lingered, hands resting on his forearms. "I would love that," she added softly.

"Then I'll definitely try to finish fast," Danny Kiyoko said in the same quiet tone, slowly withdrawing. He adjusted the bag on his shoulder and waved as he turned. "See you later, Kuki." 

"See you later!" 

The two parted ways, Danny Kiyoko turning to leave the way Wally had planned to take. 

Kuki, on the other hand, turned right toward him. 

"Oh, hey Wally!" she exclaimed, eyes brightening. The smile on her face couldn't get any more radiant. She walked toward him, waving as she approached. She seemed to walk in slow motion, still trapped in seconds that felt like hours by Danny Kiyoko's arm around her waist. 

Wally's heartbeat thudded in his ears as she neared him. His eyes couldn't leave her, taking in the mint-colored top and its flowy sleeves, the dark green skirt that swirled around her knees, the clack of her heeled shoes, the swish of her ponytail, the warm twinkle in her eyes as she neared him--

The last thing he saw before he turned and sprinted down the empty hallway was Kuki's pretty features, her beaming smile twisting into a confused frown, warm brown eyes widening as his footsteps matched the pounding of his heart. 

/ 

"Man, you just turned and _ran away from her_?!" 

Wally let his head fall back, cranium thumping hard against the wooden bench below him. "Yea. Not a word, I jus'... turned an' ran as fast as I could."

Hoagie removed his cap, running a bewildered hand through his shaggy brown hair. "Dude, I've known you since sixth grade, and yet you continue to amaze with your stupidity," he commented, replacing his cap. He gave Wally a firm look. "And I've seen you spray paint a penis on a teacher's car while he was still in it, and then vehemently deny any involvement." 

"Look, that's not what we're focusin' on 'ere." Wally sat up from his slump across the locker room bench, Hoagie gratefully scooting over once there was more room, and lowered one leg off the side. "We're focusin' on the situation at hand." 

Hoagie's lips pressed into a tight line. "Look, man, I'm not sure how much help I can give you," he admitted, reaching up to hold onto the bill of his cap. "I've liked the same girl for almost five years now, and she's never dated anyone other than one dude, who she dumped like, almost immediately because he asked to undo her bra and feel her chest on their very first date." 

Wally cringed. "Oof. Sounds like a smart sheila." 

Hoagie smiled widely. If his tinted glasses were removed, you could see the softness in his eyes as he thought about the unnamed girl. "Yeah, she's really something," he said softly. Wally's stomach twisted upon hearing that gentle tone; the same tone Kuki had talked to Danny Kiyoko in. "B-but!" Hoagie continued, hoping the flush on the back of his neck wasn't too visible. "This isn't about _me_ and _my_ girl, it's about _you_ and _your_ girl--" 

"She's not _my girl_!" The words exploded from Wally's mouth. Wally clenched his fist, feeling his short, blunt fingernails leaving crescent-shaped marks on the flesh of his palm, and sucked in a breath. Releasing it slowly, he unclenched his fist, watching it tremble as he did so. "Kuki's not my girl, mate," he whispered hoarsely, strictly looking at his palm and not at his friend. "She's someone else's. An' that's why I'm so... devastated." 

The urge to comment about his friend's usage of a five-syllable vocabulary word passed through Hoagie, but he stifled it. He reached out and placed his hand on Wally's back, cradling his stiff shoulder, rubbing some circles on the defeated slump of his spine. "She's still your friend, man," he offered quietly. "Your best friend, probably. Just 'cause she likes this other guy doesn't mean that she's.. gone, or somethin'. Y'know?" 

Wally cracked his eyes open, a small sigh escaping him. "Yea," he said. "Yea, I do." 

/ 

Kuki sat with them for the first time in a few weeks; nearly a month, Wally recollected. 

Danny Kiyoko was nowhere to be seen. 

"'Ello," he greeted as she placed her lunch tray down and slid into her seat next to Abagail -- her seat across from Wally.

"Hey, Wally," she replied, looking up at him from under her fringe and giving a small, crooked smile. She glimpsed at Abby's hand of Magic: The Gathering cards, and shook her head. "Still playing that game?" she asked her friend. 

"Still _winnin'_ that game, girl," Abby corrected smugly, shooting Hoagie a vicious, toothy smirk. "Yes, yes I am." 

"Great! Awesome." 

"Not great!" Hoagie exclaimed, waving his cards at Kuki rather irritably. " _Not_ awesome! Every single day, I get my butt handed to me by _my very own pupil_ , the very same girl I passed my ancient elder knowledge down to, and you wanna say that that's _awesome_?!" 

"Girl means what she says, Gilligan," Abby fired back, chuckling victoriously over the slip of his temper. 

"She just _shrugged_! I think that means she doesn't, Lincoln!" 

While they bickered, Wally anxiously glimpsed back and forth between the vocabulary homework he'd avoided last night and Kuki. She was looking down at her cell phone, lips pursed thoughtfully. As though she'd felt his gaze, she glanced up at him. As their eyes met, the seconds seemed to stretch into the fabric of infinity. 

Then...

...she smiled at him. 

The back of his neck burned. Wally quickly returned his eyes to his homework, squinting down at it as the letters iterated from the right ways to backward, b's flipping into d's and p's reflected as q's. He tapped his pencil irritably against the assignment, teeth worrying at his lip as he thought back to the morning when he'd... forgotten to take his pills, having opened the cap but had gotten distracted by the bus arriving a few minutes early. 

Forget it. Homework was a fruitless endeavor without someone to read it out for him. He pushed it away from him and folded his arms on the table, peering at the Asian girl from the corner of his eye as Abby and Hoagie played. 

"So, ah.. Kuki." He winced at the sound of his own voice, awkward and hesitant. He coughed and reluctantly continued. "Where's, uh... where's ol' Dan 'Yoko?" 

Kuki's lips thinned into a line. 

"He's sitting with Lisa Connor today," she said. Wally could immediately tell that her voice was purposefully light, smile forced to match the tone. "They're working on an English assignment. Comparing notes, or something." 

"Ah. Sounds like a right dag," Wally commented, nose wrinkled with distaste. Met with blank stares from everyone, even Hoagie, who's grown accustomed to translating Australian slang, Wally flushed. "Sounds like a.. a nerd." 

Kuki shrugged. "He is a nerd. What can ya do?" 

"Make 'im lighten up or somethin'." The Australian coughed into his fist, shifting uncomfortably. "Aren't ya his... er... together? Ya can jus' tell him to step away from it for a while, right?" 

"I'm not his mother. Who am I to order him around?" Kuki rubbed her arms, keeping them close and tight against her chest protectively. "I don't mind him working with someone else for a change. I missed you guys, anyway." 

"We missed you too, girl," Abby put in, looking up from her cards. Hoagie, paused in his sulking over their argument, nodded. 

"Yeah, Kuki," he piped in. "We definitely felt your absence." He snuck a narrow-eyed look at Wally. "Some of us more than others," he muttered. 

The defensive stiffness of her posture loosened up. "Really?" she asked. "You guys, I didn't realize you missed me..." She looked down, guiltily avoiding their eyes by plucking at a piece of lint on her sleeve.

Abby placed her cards down and twisted to face her. "Aw, girl, don't feel bad," she assured, wrapping her arm around Kuki's shoulders. "We're big kids. We can handle it if you wanna get cozy wit' someone else for a change. Right, y'all?" She smiled falsely at them, gritted teeth bared. 

Hoagie nodded. "Totally. We get it." 

"Speak for ya'self," Wally muttered darkly. 

A sharp pain shot up his leg. Abby's eyes widened dangerously, her grin taking on a malicious edge. "I-I mean, yea, we get it," he corrected. "Absolutely." 

Kuki's smile was overflowing with relief. "I'm glad," she said, leaning into Abby's one-armed embrace. "You guys are awesome. From now on, I'll sit with you every other day, at least." She put a finger on her chin. "Maybe I can even convince Danny to sit here too! I hope that'd be okay with you all." 

"Girl, unless shawty is wack in the head or he's treatin' you badly, we can handle it," Abby assured her. She shot Wally another pointed look. 

Another cue. "Er, right," he chipped in. He aimlessly reached a hand across the table, then shakily withdrew it, embarrassed about the mindless gesture. "Won't be a problem 'nless the bloke's a right freckle to ya', Kooks. Promise!" 

Kuki stared blankly. "I only understood a bit of what you just said," she said. "But I'll have faith in that it was sweet." She cocked her head, smiling sweetly at him. 

Wally gulped. 

Hoagie rolled his eyes. "You might as well be proposing," he muttered to his Australian friend. To his chagrin, he received a hard elbow to the side for his snarky remark. 

Abigail only sighed. 

/ 

Kuki stuck to her promise. 

She accompanied them at lunch every other day, sometimes even two, three, four in a row when Danny Kiyoko was preoccupied with something or other; almost always homework or a project. ' _He has a scholarship at Yale to earn_ ,' she'd explained. ' _Like heck he's wasted his high school years having no social life to not get into one of the country's best schools._ ' 

Despite the strange occurrence in the hallway, with Kuki and her boyfriend and Wally's total and utter cowardice -- the pair of them fell back into their normal, routine relationship: he cracked jokes, she giggled at every one. She showed up at his practices (baseball in the fall, baseball in the spring), he showed up to hers (volleyball practice on Fridays when his own didn't overlap, martial arts club on Mondays and Thursdays, even the quilt-making club sessions she'd roped him into sitting in on once or twice). 

Wally wondered if his excuse of 'had to book it to practice' really convinced her, but if it did, then all the better. He'd rather pretend it never happened, too. 

One afternoon, on a Thursday (he remembered it clear as day), she was downright crestfallen. 

Wally on her left -- he and Abigail had long switched seats, with the African-American girl sitting on Hoagie's right, now that their epic battle had finally ended with a satisfying victory for Abby, to no one's surprise -- had noticed instantly. 

"Why so gloomy, Kooks?" he asked, earning Abby's and Hoagie's attention. "You alright?" 

She delicately placed her lunch tray down on the table, contrasting the uncaring way she flopped down in her chair. "I don't know, Wally," she admitted, putting her elbows on the table and propping her cheeks on her fists. "I don't think I am." 

Wally's concern sharpened. Abby beat him to the punch by leaning over and asking, "Do you need some ibuprofen, girl? I have some in my locker, if it's that time already." 

"I've got some chocolate in mine, if that'll help," Hoagie offered. "Sometimes it helps Abby when the day is just intolerable. Nigel's even asked me for some too, when Rachel is cranky 'cause of hers. I've become a pretty regular dealer, actually." 

Kuki shook her head. "No, it's not that," she said. "Wally's right, it's not for another week." 

"Then what's wrong?" Hoagie asked. His eyebrows rose up above the lenses of his goggles. "Oh, wait. Is the pain even physical, like we're thinking about?" 

Kuki shook her head again. 

"What'cha upset over, girl?" Abby reached across the table, offering her hand. "Do you wanna talk about it?" 

"It's... it's Danny." Kuki looked up at her friend. She hurriedly continued, seeing the worry etched into Abby's features, "He's not doing anything to me, I swear. You all know I could kick his ass if he laid a finger on me." 

"It's true." Wally glanced over at Abby and Hoagie. "I've seen her suplex a guy twice her weight and nearly a foot taller than her. Judo don't play 'round, mates." 

"Then... is he being mean to you, girl? 'Cause if he is, then Numbuh Five's gon' open a can'a whoop ass if he don't start behavin'..." Abby cracked her knuckles menacingly, giving her biceps a flex. Wally noticed the way Hoagie's ears turned pink, and the audible gulp he took; making a reminder to remind him about it later, and looked back at Kuki. 

"Make it a twofer, Numbuh Five," he piped up, lacing his fingers together and stretching them out. "Whoever that is. 'S been too long since I've stretched my fists on some cruddy dweeb's face! Too long, I tell ya!" 

Kuki shot him a pointed look. "Wally, no," she warned. She shook a finger at him, a dark sort of joking smile overtaking her glum frown. "I've worked too hard on you just to have you flunk out because you were expelled again!" 

"Ugh, fine." 

"Ahem?" 

"I mean, yes ma'am." 

Kuki sat back in her seat, chin raised proudly at his compliance. Soon, her despondence returned, and she sighed as the fleeting moment of cheer was replaced with dejection again. "No, I'm fine. Just a little disappointed, I guess. Danny and I... I think we may be breaking up soon." 

"Why?" 

Kuki put her head back in her hand, long hair falling over her left shoulder. The scent of apples drifted to Wally's nose as it shifted. "I feel like... we just kinda fell apart," she said slowly, trying to explain it correctly. "I think I just overreacted to a little crush on a classmate. We went on two dates, and it feels like it never even had an impact." She chuckled, an empty sound that was little more than a bitter exhale. 

Abby tilted her head, eyebrows pulled together in a sympathetic frown. "Girl, that sucks," she apologized. 

"At least you're not super torn up about it, right?" Hoagie chipped in. "Just a little sad?"

Kuki nodded. "I'm more disappointed that it didn't work out."

"That's good. Single life is where it's at, baby." Hoagie winked jokingly, clicking his tongue at her. "Why risk getting cooties, am I right?" 

Abby rolled her eyes. "Cooties, huh?" she asked flatly, folding her arms. "No wonder you're a bachelor, boy. Ain't no woman wanna date someone who thinks cooties are real!" 

"Oh, don't throw shade at _me_ , Abby!" Hoagie pounded the table in Wally's general direction, keeping his eyes locked on Abby's. "I was just making a joke! What about Wally, huh? The guy thought cooties were real until _ninth grade_!"

"Aye, don't drag _me_ into this!" Wally barked, painfully flicking one of Hoagie's knuckles. "An' it ain't my fault everyone kept me in ignorance! So bugger off!" 

"Ooh, ' _ignorance_ '," Hoagie mocked. "Pulling out the three syllable words just for her, huh? And some proper sentence structure, too!" 

"Yer lucky you're across this table, 'r else you'd get this right in your precious ribs!" Wally lifted up a clenched fist and closed one eye, blocking out Hoagie's whole head with it. 

"Wally, violence isn't the answer!" Kuki scolded, putting her hand on his shoulder to restrain and lowering his arm, knowing very well that he'd have no qualms with jumping over a table to punch someone. The effect of it was reduced by the mad giggles that she tried but couldn't hide. 

"Y'all so childish," Abby tsked, closing her eyes. A smirk tugged at her lips, despite her disdain. "What's Abby gon' do with y'all?"

/

After lunch that day, school dragged on. Wally kept his eyes on the clock, watching the hands move agonizingly slow. Algebra was his last class of the day, and nothing was cooperating with his brain. (His temples were throbbing from trying to squint at the worksheet so hard, the numbers on it turned around the right way.) But thank the lord, there were only twenty minutes left. If only he had the power to fast forward time.... With a sigh, he lowered his head, resting his forehead on his folded arms, and closed his eyes. 

"Alright, class! Make sure you complete the worksheet I handed out, and have a great weekend!" 

Nudged out of his sleep by the sound of the bell ringing, Wally raised his head and blinked blearily, watching his classmates stream out of the door. His brain processed the events sluggishly, and the excitement of leaving school on a Friday afternoon hit him like a freight train. Throwing his papers and books into his bag, Wally all but ran out of the room, the second to last person left other than one student who was talking to their teacher. 

Pulling up his hood before he left, Wally ran out of the school, ducking out of one of the side doors instead of following the herd of students crowding at the main doors. The soccer field lay between the building and the sidewalk he took to walk home; Friday afternoon practice that day had been canceled due to bad weather, thunderstorms accompanied by wicked lightning strikes, much to his coach's chagrin. Wally cut across the field, sharp, slanted raindrops cutting at his face, books bouncing heavily on his back as he sprinted for the cover of the trees lining his path on the sidewalk. All that was missing from this were more weights strapped to his ankles, knee pads, and a harsh whistle blasting whenever someone even thought about hesitating. 

As he neared the dugout off to the side, Wally slowed to a jog, noticing someone sitting on the canopy-covered benches, slumped over their legs with both elbows resting on their knees. His head turned to glance over as he passed, but his springy steps halted upon noticing a very familiar girl, a raindrop-sprinkled umbrella leaning against the wall of the dugout. 

They met eyes, and each blinked once. 

Then Kuki returned her eyes to the ground, bangs hiding her sight from view. 

Wally walked over to the dugout. Hands in his jeans pockets, he walked until he was barely under the lip of the canopy, just out of the rain's reach. 

"Aye there, Kuki." Wally cleared his throat. "Er... somethin' the matta'? Why're you sittin' out here all by yourself..?" 

Her brown eyes flickered up to him, and she hummed a greeting but didn't bother with words for several moments. "I don't know," she slowly admitted, voice as heavy as the clouds overhead. "I really don't. I was just... I just wanted to be by myself for a couple of minutes. Can't get that at home, so... here I am." 

"O-oh. Sorry, I'll make myself scarce." Wally stepped back into the rain, feeling drops immediately soak into his damp hoodie, but Kuki shook her head. 

"No, you don't have to go," she said. "I don't mind your company, Wally." 

"Ah good. Glad I'm not intrudin'." Wally rubbed the back of his neck, feeling it prickle with a blush that, thankfully, had yet to creep into his face. He looked off to the side, rocking back and forth on his heels, the brief pause getting under his skin. "So," he said simply, mostly because he didn't have much of a reply. "You, uh... you wanna talk about your feelin's or somethin'?" 

Kuki looked up at him with hard honey-colored eyes, this time keeping her gaze instead of looking away. "Do you want to listen to me talk about it?" she asked instead. "It's about... well..." 

"It's about that bloke, right?" Wally shoved his hands into the kangaroo pocket of his hoodie, lips thinned. 

"Yes. Wally, look. I'm not stupid. I know you felt all.. weird about me dating him." Her gaze sharpened. "You never liked me talking about him, you always grumble stuff under your breath... you ran away from seeing me hug him like I had cooties?"

Wally winced at the allusion to their conversation from earlier, when he'd foolishly thought that she'd forgotten about all of his odd behavior over the course of her relationship. "Look, Kooks, I know I acted all weird 'n stuff about seein' you in that hallway, but I just... really had to run to practice. Coach already threatened to bench me twice, and it's 'three strikes, you're out', 'n all that..."

Her eyes sizzled into his skin. He tugged at his collar uncomfortably, reminded of the wet hoodie clinging to his arms and chest, and then the shirt beneath it (October in Virginia was too cold for a warm-blooded man like himself). "Or else coach was gonna skin me 'live," he weakly tacked on. "Or worse: bench me. Regionals are in a coupl'a weeks. Can't afford to sit it out, y'know?" 

Kuki huffed out a single laugh through her nostrils. "Yeah, I know, Wally." 

Wally shook his head at that disbelief etched onto her face. "Anyway," he continued, shaking harder to clear his thoughts. "I promise that that was the reason, real dinkum. But we aren't talkin' about me bein' a cruddy sook, we're talkin' 'bout this Danny Kiyoko." He moved forward and sat next to her, dropping his backpack on the ground. "So dish the goss. You'll feel rapt as rain talkin' to ol' Wallabee Beetles, a true blue mate." 

That ridiculous string of words got some laughter out of her. She covered her mouth as she giggled. "Do you just get all of that off of some website, or is it actually real?" she joked, nose wrinkled. 

Wally shrugged. "Might'a," he answered, trying and failing to hide a smirk. He nudged her shoulder with his own. "Now, talk to me, Kooks. What's the matta'?"

Her amusement quickly faded, and she looked away once more, eyes downcast. "Something went wrong, Wally," she whispered. 

"Went wrong?" he echoed, brows furrowing. "What d'ya mean..?" 

She blew out a breath, running a stressed hand through her bangs, hanging loosely around her face. One of her many charming headbands was absent, and the scrunchie holding her hair in a bun earlier was now around her wrist. "At first, I was crushing hard on Danny Kiyoko," she confessed. "Like... hard. Harder than I've ever crushed on a guy before." 

Ignoring the way his heart twinged at that, Wally swallowed his grief and surged on. "Yea?" 

"Yeah. All the signs were there: butterflies, sweaty palms, laughing at every stupid thing he says..." Kuki's eyes slid shut. "When I asked him to study together at lunch, and he said yes? Oh, I'd known I'd made a good move. There's nothing more Danny Kiyoko loves more than studying, and what better way to lure him in than working on math homework together?" 

Wally propped his elbows on his knees and looked at his own sweaty palms. 

"And then, after dedicating a few lunch periods of studying together, I made my move. I asked him out on an ice cream date one Friday. He agreed, we went later after we'd done all of our chores and stuff." Kuki looked up at the ceiling, head thumping against the wall behind her. "He ordered French vanilla, and awkwardly said 'uhh, no thanks' when I asked for a taste in exchange for one of mine. Like I'd asked him to do something totally outrageous." 

"Hooly-dooly," Wally muttered. "How daft can ya' be?" 

"It was okay. After we finished, he walked me home. It was just barely getting dark, since the days are a little longer now, and I turned back to him after he reached the porch..." She trailed off, eyes blurring with the memory. "...and he just said 'good night' and left. My sister was watching from the window the entire time, and she laughed real hard when I entered the house." 

Wally shook his head. "Too focused on studyin'? Can't even fathom it." 

"But that wasn't even the.. the catalyst of what happened. Right after that first date, we didn't go out again. Just kept meeting up to study. The butterflies vanished. I stopped laughing at his jokes and just started thinking they were kinda lame. I started thinking about you... y-you guys, and how I missed sitting with you all." Kuki blinked at him, her eyelashes sticking together with tears. 

"H-hey, hey, don't cry. It's alright," Wally soothed. He twisted his fingers together anxiously, wondering if it was appropriate to wrap an arm around her. She typically enjoyed hugs, from him or otherwise, but it could be the completely wrong move right then; rebounding from bad relationships tended to make people volatile, he'd learned throughout high school, mostly from mates on the soccer team. "Do you, er... d'ya--" 

"It's just..!" she interrupted him, voice trembling with anger. She shot out of her seat, straightening to her full height (an utterly charming 5'2"), and started to pace back and forth beneath the shelter of the small dugout roof, feeling urgent to move and do something with the aggressive energy brimming within her. 

"My dad wanted me to date a nice Japanese boy with good grades!" Kuki ranted. She blew fringe out of her eyes, then pushed it back with an annoyed brush of her fingers when it flopped back into her vision. "And at first it was okay! It was fine! Danny Kiyoko was kinda cute if you stopped and thought about it for a minute, and he's one of the smartest boys in any of my classes. He's going to Yale on a scholarship for differential geometry, Wally, _Yale_! Do you know how impressed my parents were?" 

Wally's mind flashed back to the torn-open letter still sitting in his desk at home, crammed into a drawer in a panic after receiving an acceptance letter from Harvard, one of the places he'd applied to as a joke, an unfathomable reality during his junior year.

"I might have an idea.." he answered. 

She chuckled bitterly. "You really don't. One of the first things my dad said after Danny Kiyoko left was 'Kuki, you'd better keep hold of him. Your mother is heart-set on grandkids.' Like I'm going to marry the guy after _one_ date!" Kuki angrily marched on, "But do you wanna know the problem with Danny Kiyoko, Wally?" 

"Tell me the problem, Kuki." 

"He was... he was _boring_!" she spat. "All he does is _study_! We went on two dates, and one was that horrible ice cream date, and the other? Was to the park. To -- take a freakin' guess -- _study together_! 'Fresh air will help us focus better.' I didn't _want_ fresh air! I wanted his arm around me at the movies! I wanted to put my feet up on the dashboard of his car! I wanted a taste of his ice cream when we're walking home! I wanted..." 

The fury that had been energizing her as she barreled onward suddenly died, leaving her crestfallen, weakly clutching her arms to herself. She sighed, head bending forward, and her hair fell over her shoulder like a curtain, a dark silhouette against the white brick she leaned back on. "...I wanted someone else." 

Wally remained still, afraid to disrupt the fragile atmosphere that surrounded them, delicate like spun glass. 

"I didn't want someone who would make my father proud because he's going to Yale for differential geometry, or someone who would make my mother already start planning a wedding ceremony," she continued quietly. "I wanted someone who makes me laugh so hard I snort sparkling water out of my nose. I want someone who'd skip class to drive me to a doctor's appointment in his car, and take me out for lunch after. I want someone who'd.. look up at me in the bleachers of his soccer game, and grin so big, and give me that cocky thumbs up just before he got tackled by someone on the other team, even though it's not _football_ , Wally, it's _soccer_ , there isn't supposed to _be_ tackling, and then you get yellow carded for fighting, but it doesn't matter because you clutch the game anyways and give us another victory, and...." She chuckled sadly, but fondness trickled into her laughter. With a sigh, she drooped again, her elbow centimeters from brushing his.

Kuki lifted her head, brushing hair out of her way as she met his eyes again, ensnaring him into their warm brown depths and dragging him under. 

"I think I wanted _you_ , Wally," she breathed. "I think that's what went wrong."

Wally emerged from below the surface of shy, hesitantly shown but powerful affection glimmering in her eyes, sucking in a breath like he'd truly been drowning. "Kuki..." 

"Wally?" she whispered. 

"I'm... I'm going to Harvard Medical School." Wally closed his eyes. "I know I'm no nice Japanese boy wit' stellar grades an' a scholarship to Yale for dissential geography or whatever, but... D'ya think that'd impress your dad at all..?" 

Kuki laughed weakly, a wet chuckle choked out of a tight throat. She blinked, and tears glittered in her eyes. "It might just make him forget the time in freshman year when you didn't realize he was right behind me when you showed me a picture of the middle finger you'd spray painted onto the elementary school." 

"Hope he ain't too sore ova' that time I walked you home lookin' like I'd been boxin' a kangaroo. Covered in scrapes, busted lip, black eye..." He shot a scowl at the ceiling. "Thanks a bunch, Kenry Conrad. Tosser." 

Kuki's hand covered her mouth, poorly concealing a giggle. "Or, what about the time in tenth grade, you stuck your tongue out at me, and he walked in and caught an eyeful of the piercing you'd gotten?"

Wally grinned crookedly, teeth flashing. "Or the time I dyed ma' hair neon blue to celebrate passing all my exams that year?" 

Kuki laughed freely, lowering her hand and letting it prop her up as she leaned back. Their shoulders brushed, and her long, straight hair tickled his knuckles sitting her hip. "I thought it suited you pretty well." 

"Looked mighty distinguished, didn't I?" he joked, reaching up and sweeping his bangs off his face, pulling them back and lifting his chin in mock arrogance. "Hell, he'd prolly think I forged the acceptance letta' an' fling it back at my mug, howlin' wit' laughta'." He chuckled, bitter and disappointed, and let his hair flop back down onto his forehead. 

"Wally, you don't need an acceptance letter from Harvard Medical School to be good enough for my dad." Kuki leaned forward again, using her free hand to gently touch his knee, exposed by the ragged hole in his jeans. Her touch made his skin tingle. "Even if you did, it wouldn't matter. I don't care whether he approves of who I date or not." 

The Australian boy swallowed at the feel of her fingers on his knee. He leaned forward as well, bringing his hands into his lap. "Is that so..?" he asked weakly. "Why don't you care? He's your pop, he's a real important guy in your life." 

"'Cause I know you're a good guy, no matter what you may spray paint onto elementary schools, or how many fistfights you may get in, or what kinds of piercings you may get." Kuki smiled warmly. "You're an amazing guy, Wally. Don't let anybody say otherwise." 

"I won't. The only person whose opinion I care 'bout is yours, Kuki." Wally returned her sweet smile, chuckling as the corners of her eyes crinkled. "Has been for... ever since I got to know ya'." 

"Wally..." Her long, curved eyelashes fluttered, brushing her cheekbones as her eyelids drifted shut. Head tilting, she leaned in, parted lips approaching his own. 

_This is it, lad_ , Wally thought to himself, gulping and tilting his head the opposite way. _It's what you've been waiting for since you met this sheila. Make it **count**._

Kuki tasted like raspberries. Her soft pink chapstick rubbed off onto his mouth as their lips met, and he brought a hand up to cradle the back of her head, fingers sweeping through soft black locks. Her fingers brushed his raised forearm, head leaning more into the kiss as it stretched on. All of the romance movies his mum had strongarmed her way into watching on the family room television -- all of those kisses in the rain his mum had sighed at, the same ones he'd covered Joey's eyes from -- resurfaced in his brain. Now he understood the swell of music, a crescendo of raspberry chapstick and soft cheeks and fluttering eyelashes engulfing him. 

Hopefully, she couldn't feel his heart in his throat. 

She brought her head back a little, breaking the kiss, and smiled. "Wally," she sighed, cupid's bow bumping his own as she mouthed the word and leaned back in a second time, raising her chin into the kiss and bringing her arms around his neck. Breaking it off again, she sighed his name again. 

"Kuki.." he whispered back, eyelids cracking open and taking in her beautiful, blissfully happy face. He pressed his forehead to hers, blond bangs mingling with black fringe. "Don't tell anyone, but... I, erm... I, uh... I like ya quite a lot."

"Oh no, I'm telling everyone." Her smile quirked into a smirk, and she withdrew farther, giving him a devious grin. "I'll shout it from the rooftops. Wallabee Beetles is a total softie who likes me a whooole lot! More than soccer, more than metal music.. _more than I like Rainbow Monkeys_!" 

"Yea, yea, rub it in, why don't'cha?" Wally leaned back as she did, smirking as she giggled to herself. 

"Oh, I will! Wally Beetles likes me, Wally Beetles liiikes me--" 

"Oh, shut it, you--" Wally reached up for her head again, leaning back toward her and silencing her with another kiss. His other hand cradled her waist, trembling lightly upon her hip despite his boldness. Fingers curling into the green fabric around her waist, to hide the shaking, Wally drew back again, releasing a quivering breath between them. "Nice," he whispered, tongue running over his lips. 

Smug laughter burst from her, and he blushed. "You like raspberry?" she asked, quirking an eyebrow. 

"'S my new favorite flavor!" he shot back, grinning cheekily. 

Kuki put her hand on his cheek, thumb brushing over his jawline. "Do you... wanna go do something?" she asked hesitantly. "As much as I like sitting with you, my back hurts from sitting like this..." 

"Y-yeah, sure!" Wally hopped to his feet and extended a hand down to her. Kuki took it, her arm flexing as he helped her into a standing position. With a suave grin, she reached into her folded-up umbrella and popped it open, holding it over both of their heads as they exited the dugout. "What do you wanna do?" he asked, keeping his arm around her waist as they walked, slowly as to keep the umbrella steady. (It bumped the top of his head if he didn't keep it low, but he'd let her hold it if she so desired.)

"What would you say to some ice cream?" Kuki suggested. 

"I'd say I'm payin' for it," Wally replied, patting his pocket, never more relieved to feel his wallet in place and not at home, or God forbid in his car. "And you can even have some of mine if I'm feelin' generous." 

"What flavor?" 

"Strawberry, maybe." 

"Not raspberry..?" She winked up at him.

"Maybe that instead. We'll see where the flow takes us." 

/ 

"You guys..... are disgusting." 

Hoagie groaned as the couple sitting across the table just ignored him. A sharp kick to his shin revealed that Wally hadn't completely missed that complaint, despite the earbud in one ear and Kuki's giggling in the other. He flopped back in his chair, arms folded, shooting Abigail beside him a pouting look. "Are they not barf-inducing?" he asked. 

"Jus' be glad they finally got together, fool," Abby replied. She was doing surgery on one wing of her eyeliner, where she'd absentmindedly rubbed and smudged, to her horror and chagrin. "Now they ain't crushin' on each other blindly anymore, and we finally _relax_." 

"Can you relax while they're doing that?" Hoagie asked, gesturing to the couple. Abby glanced up from her compact mirror, wrinkling her nose as Kuki shot Wally a very familiar look that the two bachelors had come to recognize as 'seductive'. Those lidded eyes, crooked smirk, and cocked shoulder combo made Wally gulp almost every time.

"Not really," she confessed. Snapping her compact shut and screwing the wand back into her eyeliner, she replaced them in her purse and reached into her backpack instead. "So, how about we counter that with a lil' bit of this, huh?" 

Hoagie's eyes widened as she pulled out two familiar decks of cards. "Blackjack, huh? Abby, you know better than to enable my gambling addiction," he teased, reaching for the deck she held out to him. Their fingers brushed, and Hoagie let his hand linger, eyes flickering up to hers. 

Abby blinked at him with narrow, deep brown eyes, curved eyelashes fluttering against her high cheekbones. A flush crept up the back of his neck, and he took the D-20 sitting in her palm, holding both items insecurely close to his chest. 

"Would'ja knock it off, you two?" A crude Australian accent broke into their moment. "I'm gettin' sick jus' lookin' at those googly eyes!" 

Startled, Hoagie broke the eye contact, looking the other way. As he rubbed the back of his neck, prickling hot with embarrassment, he caught Abigail blushing hotly, cheeks red despite her darker skin. "Wh-- boy, if you don't take that back..!" she snapped, banging a fist on the table. "You're gettin' sick from jus' ten seconds?! Try five days a week for _two months_!" 

"He has always had a weak stomach," Hoagie remarked, scowling at his friend. "And a strong aversion to _reading the room_." 

"Sod off. I don't read anythin' that I don't wanna." Wally eloquently stuck out his tongue, punctuating his sentence smugly. 

Abby huffed, removing the rubber band around her cards with a snap of the elastic against her skin, and began the shuffling process. Hoagie followed suit. "I wonder if we'll get the focus in a future story," he wondered out loud. 

"Maybe if Abby _feels_ like subjectin' herself to that again," she muttered, still annoyed by the commentary. Shaking her head, she tapped her cards together, straightening their edges out, and then drew seven. "Now then. You wanna go first, or shall I?" 

Hoagie shuffled his deck one last time, the cards ' _shk, shk, shk_ 'ing as they met between his thumbs and palms. "I'll do the honors, thank you." He sighed. "Can't believe it's finally over after God knows how many words. At least one thousand or two, right? Couple hundred more? Who knows. Now, I summon....."

**Author's Note:**

> INCOMING: LOTS OF NOTES
> 
>  
> 
> > i used ShinigamiRukia's art for their appearances (link: https://www.zerochan.net/1241126), specifically for one of kuki's outfits! 
> 
> > here's the Australian slang dictionary again (http://alldownunder.com/index.html)
> 
> > OK HERE'S A MOOD PLAYLIST:  
> boys and girls in school - neon trees  
> all to myself - dan + shay  
> thunder - imagine dragons  
> the perfect scene - mercy mercedes  
> i really like you - carly rae jepsen  
> somebody - jukebox the ghost 
> 
>  
> 
> > SOME CHARACTER BACKSTORY
> 
> throughout middle school & the first two years of high school, wally was extremely troubled & frequently got into fights. as mentioned, he occasionally dyed his hair & got some piercings (& got an underground tattoo as well, which was not mentioned, bc kuki doesn't even know abt it), **specifically *because** they weren't permitted in school. once he was sent to a counselor, despite his record of dislike toward them, one managed to get a grasp on why he disliked school so much: a gnarly combination of ADHD, dyslexia, & prejudice by several teachers & classmates in the past for being 'stupid'. 
> 
> despite his roughness, he met hoagie again (two years after decommissioning/in grade 6. yes this takes place in canon. lol) by standing up to bullies; he also met abigail (who is a teen agent in this. yes that throwaway line was on purpose. lol x2) this way, by joining her in hoagie's defense. wally also *also* met kuki this way, in 10th grade when she moved back to the US after four years in japan. she was being picked on for her accent, which she'd relearned after speaking straight japanese for several years, by a known group of bullies, & wally wouldn't tolerate it, having been teased relentlessly for his own accent. 
> 
> they became fast friends, by simply having personalities that clicked together. (wally also thought she was extremely pretty, & she was still grateful for saving her.) by extension, kuki also befriended hoagie & abby, who saw through wally's new crush on her almost instantly. she saw that he was doing extremely poorly in school (considering dropping out), despite the counseling for his ADHD & dyslexia, & sought to help him pass. she read his assignments out to him, which solved much of the problems he had with dyslexia, & encouraged & reminded him to take the medication he'd been prescribed to help with the rest. she turned his life around, & his barely-passing marks transformed into A's & B's (& the occasional C, but it was still a noticeable improvement from an F). 
> 
> in 11th grade, wally took interest in a program that harvard college had set up at high schools around the country, & enrolled. he turned out to be a master at managing his busy schedule, managing sports, regular schoolwork, the college courses he was taking, & a social life. he earned very high marks in the program, & despite his success, wally still had poor self-esteem. he applied to a medical program at the university as a joke, expecting nothing but disappointment. he hadn't foreseen actually being accepted, & when he received the official acceptance letter, he was in a catatonic-like state of shock for several hours afterward. (for the record, kani sanban would be extremely impressed when wally meets kuki's parents as an official boyfriend, **specifically *because** of his rough history.) 
> 
> this fic takes place in october of year 12, also. i do not live in virginia, so idk how the climate it. probably cold, right? it gets cold in the beginning november, here, not october. shrug emoji x2
> 
>  
> 
> hope you didn't cringe too hard! if you liked, hit that bell button & subscribe to my youtube channel, i mean leave a comment down below!! thank you for reading :)


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